Friday on My Mind: Happy Anniversary

It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.

It turns out that today and tomorrow mark the anniversaries of a few releases that we hold pretty near and dear to our hearts here at KEXP. A couple of them celebrate their 25th anniversary and that also makes it official that you’re old because you remember getting these on tape. Or you’re just kind of old because you got them soon after on CD. Or just young and just discovered them on vinyl and that’s the only way you listen to music now. Or maybe you’re just someone who downloaded it illegally and aren’t even sure when any of this came out, what an album is or that Scream wasn’t the first time Red Right Hand saw the time of day. Either way, these are three very important seminal records.Pixies – Here Comes Your Man

Doolittle is considered by many to be one of the most highly influential and most emulated albums since the dawn of “college” or “alternative” rock. Although Pixies had already released two previous albums, Doolittle served as the first glimpse of the band to a broader audience, thanks especially to the band’s move from 4AD to Elektra. Now, more people had access to the bizarre lyrical world of Pixies and their screaming space-infatuated frontman, Frank Black. Album producer Gil Norton said that Pixies recorded a song a day in order to complete Doolittle.

Tricky – Black Steel

Bristol-born Adrian Thaws, a.k.a. Tricky, released Maxinquaye on today’s date in 1994. While Maxinquaye is Tricky’s solo debut after departing Massive Attack, the album was actually more of a collaboration between Thaws and his then wife, Martina Topley-Bird, whose vocals permeate a good portion of the album. For a more mainstream audience, Maxinquaye was an introduction to what is referred to as IDM or intelligent dance music, which creeped into existence during the early 90’s. Samples throughout the album range from Michael Jackson’s “Bad” on “Brand New, You’re Retro” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Suffer” on “Ponderosa”. The dark moods created with electronic bloops and clangs was a whole new musical landscape. Topley-Bird has gone on to be an acclaimed singer-songwriter of her own right, releasing many solo releases since 1994. “Black Steel” was Tricky’s twist on Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos”.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ eighth studio album, Let Love In was released in the UK on on April 18th and to audiences in the US on April 19th back in 1994. The album was a continuation of the progression of the band’s stylistic growth from their early days, during which they leaned towards a more post punk sound. “Red Right Hand” is probably one of the most recognizable songs off of the album. With it’s eerie subject matter, the song has been licensed many times for use within various television programs and feature films, most dealing with dark themes such as murder and death, for which this particular tune serves as a perfect soundtrack.

Honorable Mention:

Another little album was released on April 18th back during the year 2000. Elliott Smith’s Figure 8.